Kiri
=Appearance= Kiri is officially listed as an Aquilonian in the kingdom's records, but in reality is of mixed heritage, denoted as Kirei because of a scribe's error, to avoid confusing her with another personage. Her mother was Brythunian, and her father at least partially Vanir. Born into slavery by a slave, as Brythunian women often are, Kiri was in effect the 'runt of the litter', birthed and raised malnourished from the start. While she endured physical labor as a young girl and was given eventual training with blades, she would remain emaciated and weakened into her adult life. Kiri's trademark costume consists of a metal slave collar, bracelets and circlet, and a skimpy pair of Nemedian styled bottoms. She is considered odd at best and barbaric at worst for her state of undress, only very rarely wearing more. She uses a sword and bow in battle; unlike most barbarians she favors a combat style that favors agility and stealth over raw power, and her high constitution and pain threshold allows for her half-naked fighting style. =Personality and Destiny= Of the many adventurers that trod Hyboria, destiny plays a large part in a large number of these life paths. But of them all, perhaps none are as ill-fated, none as predestined as Kirei. While listed in Aquilonian records as of that kingdom, Kiri was only born in far eastern Aquilonia, albeit in chains. Born a Brythunian slave and birthed by a slave, she is fair and blonde as many women are from that land, highly sought after as slave stock. While temporarily wearing the Mark of Acheron and slave even to the will of Thoth-Amon, Kirei’s fate is to suffer a bondage and blackness far greater than even this. Victim of the Prophecy, she is the subject of a legend that persists in the northern lands she hails from. It involves a wager from the depths of prehistoric time between the battle maiden Morrigan and a dark goddess of unknown identity. Possibly a female aspect of Al'Kiir or a goddess who usurped his portfolio of lust, pain, and death. There is an obscure reference to a Louhi or Loviatar, who is a goddess that would be venerated in northern lands thousands of years after the Hyborian Age had faded from history. While the stakes of the wager are lost in time, the outcome is certain; Morrigan lost the bet, and had to forfeit a female champion of hers to suffer the lusts and depravities of the victorious dark goddess. Consulting the strands of the Fates, the battle maiden looked forward in time until she found a female barbarian slave yet to be born: Kiri, for indeed her life is enslaved by the forces of lust, pain, and death. Physically weak for a barbarian, clad in the costume of a slave, barely wearing more than a collar and undergarments, this sword-wielding she-slave has found mostly shame, torture, helplessness, and defeat in nearly all lands of Hyboria she walked, particularly in Stygia, where she was crucified. Most remarkable of all, and unseen even by the goddesses is Kirei’s very nature; her willingness to embrace and eagerly accept her terrible destiny, and face it full-on. Like all that bore the Mark of Acheron, Kirei cannot die, but she can most certainly endure suffering equivalent of ten thousand deaths. One might think Kirei to be a fatalistic soul with so impossibly heavy a burden to bear, but she lives life to the fullest, with a fervor to pluck the most bittersweet of fruits Hyboria can offer her, and savor the juice of each and every one. =History= Tortage and Prologue: While more than one adventurer in Hyboria came to the Baracha Islands and through the pirate port of Tortage via a wrecked Stygian slave galley, Kiri's path was a unique one. While eventually coming to fight for the resistance as many wayward slaves did, on the night Strom was overthrown she made some manner of questionable arrangement with Delia of the Red Hand, who had often taunted Kiri with the threat of impalement that allowed both to escape the city for the time being. Kiri had known a slave's chain for years prior to coming to Tortage, passing from one slave chain to another between her time spent as an adventurer. Over time, it took her to numerous corners of Hyboria, including Stygia and the Black Kingdoms. Her years as a young girl involved menial labor as soon as she was able to carry it out. Put in charge of cleaning slave kennels and animal pens, she was given the most demeaning tasks, all the while slavers would whisper explicit things in her ear, preparing her for her eventual rape once she was of age. At that point, Kiri also served her captors as such men would expect nay female slave to serve them. She would be in her late teens before sold to a passing slave caravan. Bad fortune in snowstorm would throw the caravan into chaos and allow her to escape, Aquilonia and Zelata: Kiri reached Tarantia uneventfully prior to the final battle of Tortgage, where her adventures took her to many places inside, outside and under the Aquilonian capitol. Cimmeria and the North: Fate would eventually return Kiri to the frigid north where she grew up. Starting with Cimmeria she would push on into the Border Kingdoms and Vanaheim, dealing with or fighting people in those lands, as well as the Hyperboreans, and encountering many of the ruins of ancient Acheron that dot the north. ' ' ' ' The Sands of Stygia: Eventually the road would lead her back to Stygia, where Kiri suffered the xenophobic denizens of Khemi and the arrogant Setite priests. A series of deep desert excursions proved to be physically and mentally arduous adventures, especially upriver to the boundless sands that included Khopshef Province. Her most notorious adventure occurred at the Pyramid of the Ancients, where Kiri was attracted to the decadent practices of the worshippers of the goddess Derketo, gaining entry to the pyramid by professing her desire to 'worship' at the site. Events already licentious and deviant turned ever darker as she met the Derketo whore Pashi, and went in search of her twin sister. In the upper levels of the pyramid, Kiri found out what was actually going on, and why most of the servant girls were not returning. Sneaking or fighting her way through guards, she found a bloodied Shali chained in a cell, not far from the torture chamber. Realizing she didn't have the strength to fight her way out with the girl once the guard noted their prisoner missing, Kiri made the fateful decision to take Shali's place. Having the girl lock her in her chains before leaving and taking her sword for safekeeping, Shali was able to carouse her way past drunken guards late in the evening, leaving Kiri to a most uncertain fate. While it has been argued that both of them might have escaped together, Kiri insisted on staying, saying it was the best way to complete the ruse. It is known that she spent weeks in the dark upper levels of the pyramid, gruesomely tortured by the men. Rumor states she was finally left for dead at the base of the pyramid, to bleed into the sands and allow the desert to claim all memory of her passing there. That Kiri survived is known, for like many who bore the Mark of Acheron, she cannot die a true death. Following her efforts to remove the Mark of Acheron from her right breast at last, Kiri became involved in the wider efforts of the clash between kindoms, even meeting with King Conan himself as he plotted the moves of his armies against that of Atzel and Thoth-Amon. Lords of War and The Silk Road: ' ' =Quotations= *"something."